The invention relates generally to the field of oral care, and in particular to an oral care device.
Generally speaking, there are two types of brushes used to clean teeth. The first type is an electric toothbrush in which tufts of bristles are automatically oscillated in a rotary or linear manner. The second type is a manual toothbrush wherein movement of the bristles is provided by the user of the brush moving the brush""s handle. With both types of brushes each tuft of bristles is typically rigidly fixed to the head of the toothbrush and cannot be adjusted in position relative to the portion of the head to which the tuft is secured.
Oral-B""s(copyright) CrossAction(trademark) toothbrush has three rows of tufts which are tilted at an acute angle relative to the head either towards (1 row) or away (2 rows) from the handle. The bristles in tufts which are tilted towards the direction of motion of the brush are able to penetrate the interproximal area, bend, and slide across the interproximal area, thereby providing superior plaque removal. However, because the angle of the tuft relative to the head is fixed, the tufts are only tilted towards the direction of motion of the brush for half or less of the brushing strokes. As a result, optimal cleaning of the teeth is not achieved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,032 discloses a toothbrush having a head with a hollow body 16 closed at one side by a flexible membrane 13 formed with cavities 17 to hold bases of tufts of bristles. The cavities form protrusions extending up inside the body 16 which are pushed against by a reciprocating finger 18 to tilt and move the bristles relative to the body 16. The bristle tilting and movement is done constantly and is not based on the motion of the toothbrush itself. As a result, the bristles do not lean in the direction of brush motion during the entire period of brush motion.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above. Briefly summarized, according to one aspect of the present invention, an oral care device includes a handle, a head extending from the handle, and one or more oral care elements extending from the head. The device also includes a drive for engaging a base portion of each of the one or more oral care elements and for positioning each oral care element relative to that portion of the head from which the oral care element projects based on the motion of the oral care device. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, each oral care element is a tuft of one or more bristles.
By positioning each oral care element (e.g. tuft of 1 or more bristles) based on the motion of the oral care device, the oral care elements can be optimally positioned to enhance the quality of care provided by the device. For example, all the tufts of bristles on a toothbrush can be leaned into the direction of motion of the brush for each brush stroke to maximize tooth cleaning effectiveness.
These and other aspects, objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims, and by reference to the accompanying drawings.